Kungsholmen stroll

Yesterday I also went downtown to meet Danne & Jenny for dinner. After a hamburger at Buger King, we walked over to Kungsholmen and took a little stroll around the island. Here is the famous Stockholm city hall, stadshuset.

Beetween the building and Lake Malaren is an open area with paving stones, flower beds, and statues. Flanking steps leading down into the lake, and standing above "no swimming" signs are a pair of statues, male and female. Here is the male, with Gamla Stan and Ridarholmskyrkan in the background.

Opposite him is his mate, apparently a nude dancer. She is set against a backdrop of Västerbron and a lovely sunset. After running the marathon, which goes over that bridge twice, I don't think I can ever look at it the same way again. ;)

Here's another view of our Dancer gazing wistfully at the city.

At the East end of the building lies the tomb of Birger Jarl.

Beyond him, Södermalm.

Our walk took us past the old Jewish cemetary, which was placed on Kungsholmen long ago because at the time it was not allowed to bury non-Christians within this city limits; and at the time, Kungsholmen lay outside the city of Stockholm.

We saw a couple of interesting automobiles on our walk. This old Citroën caught my eye, but it wasn't the car we went to Kungsholmen to see.

No, that was Åsa's new Mini Cooper. We had a few drinks with her and P. at Lemon bar.

They weren't this serious-looking in person. Check out Åsa's sweatshirt from Indonesia!

Danne hid behind his beer. Typical!

Not quite in focus, but better than nothing!

Jet-lag

I've mostly recovered from jet-lag after more than a week back in Stockholm, so it's time for a long overdue update to the blog.
Part of the reason I has taken me so long to adjust to the time zone is that I ran into a friend on the plane, and we kept each other awake the whole way from Austin to Stockholm. Zita is a frequent salsa dance partner of mine, and just happened to be returning from a radio astronomy conference in Austin on the exact same flights as I. We switched seats with some fellow travellers so that we could sit next to each other on both the Austin-to-Chicago and Chicago-to-Stockholm legs. We had a great time and got to know each other much better. It turns out we have many more common interests than salsa dancing. We both dig Firefly and Futurama. Now I just have to expose her to Babylon 5.

The on-board entertainment system wasn't working, so we were forced to entertain ourselves. The food and drink were quite sufficient to the occasion though and we talked until almost sunrise. Unfortunately, my plan of sleeping through most of the transatlantic leg didn't go off as planned and I was quite sluggish for several days.

My friends Danne, Jenny, and �sa met me for dinner that evening. Here is �sa mugging for the camera.

Lotta dropped the cats off ay my place in the afteroon. Sasha was a bit weird for a while, hissing at Alex and even at me. But after a couple of days she had calmed down and the two were getting along again.

Yesterday I took Alex on a long walk. After a while he didn't feel like walking anymore, so I carried him. I walked down to Brunnsviken, where we found two swans and two mallards in a patch of open water near the shore. Alex meowed. One of the swans hissed. Then Alex jumped down out of my arms and ran up the hill away from the water.

Warrily, Alex looked down from his perch. It took me a while to catch him. I don't think he particularly liked either the large body of water or the giant hissing bird. :)

Just yesterday there was ice — or at least icy slush — covering most of the lake. Today it's all open water. Spring is definitely here.

The County Line

Friday night my parents treated me to dinner at The County Line, one of Austin's oldest and most famous barbeque places. In my opinion it's the best barbeque in the world.

I've been going to The County Line for as long as I can remember.

There are two locations: the original one “on the hill” on F.M. 2244, and this restaurant “on the lake,” right where where Bull creek empties into Lake Austin. In the temperate months, it's possible to sit outside on the deck and watch the boats go by. If you choose to travel to the restaurant by water, you can moor your boat at the dock down by the water.

The decor might best be described as 1950s Texas beach house.

The portions are large and the food is terrific. The County Line smokes its meats for 18-20 hours, giving them a flavor unmatched by most other kinds of barbeque. Their brisket is the best I've ever tasted — lean, moist, and flavorful.

As you can tell, I like the food. I usually try to visit The County Line at least once or twice each time I go to Austin.

The folks at the next table kindly took this photo of us.

This is the big neon sign by the road, F.M. 2222.

If you're ever in Austin, I recommend that you pay a visit to The County Line.

Yesterday afternoon I joined my parents outside for a drink. We enjoyed the warm evening and the fading light. Tiki was sunbathing on a bench nearby.



Angel stayed out of the sun and perched on a cool rock near the waterfall.

Tom built this little stream on the West side of the house. It recirculates the water and there's a fish pond at the bottom.

Later on I drove to South Austin to visit with my new friend Laurel. I caught a few pictures of the sunset.

The light from the setting sun cast a glow on the thunderhead to the North.

The massive cloud was litteraly rolling in.



I caught this picture of lightning illuminating the cloud from within.

I caught a photo of this little fellow crossing a path near the Tivoli building in Austin.

This flower was right above him.

And this stream right behind him.

My German colleague Wolfgang is a formidable opponent.

Tiki sunbathing

Tiki soaking up the sunshine.

Tiki is a brown Burmese like my cat Alex, but he's much smaller and skinnier than Alex.

He slept at the foot of my bed last night and kept me company.

:)

Here are a couple of photos from the weekend. It got quite warm here so I wore shorts.

The sun shone most of the day on Sunday and I spent some time on the back deck of my parents' place, just lounging. It was a nice way to relax and prepare for another work week.

Last night Steve & Jill held a party in my honor. We celebrated my getting Swedish citizenship. Ethan & Kelly were there, as well as Steve & Jill's friends Jean, Phil & Ilene.

Much food and drink were consumed.

Steve slaved away over a hot stove for hours to prepare several Swedish delicacies.

He also made a nice desert with whipped cream and lingonberries. Yumm!

Steve even made glögg! Skål!

Howdy!

Grant helped blow up ballons with a little hand pump.

Thank, Steve. You're a sweetheart!